


A Love For All Time

by Eternal Scribe (Shadowcat)



Category: Charmed
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-24
Updated: 2012-09-24
Packaged: 2017-11-14 23:20:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/520563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/pseuds/Eternal%20Scribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything comes full circle for the last of the Charmed Ones.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Love For All Time

" _If the sky opened up for me,  
And the mountain disappeared,  
If the seas ran dry, turned to dust  
And the sun refused to rise  
I would still find my way,  
By the light I see in your eyes  
The world I know fades away  
But you stay..._"

 

She barely heard the words of the priestess as she presided over the ceremony. The words meant nothing to her any longer. Everything that could have been said had been said long ago, and she really didn't see the need for everything to be rehashed today. When the ceremony ended, she felt her daughter take her arm and they walked away from the coffin and out of the crypt. She was helped into the limousine and after the door shut behind her, the car started the drive out of the cemetary.

She closed her eyes and lay her head back against the seat. She was so damned tired. The last few weeks had only served to remind her how old she had gotten. She was the last of them and she was ready for her time to be up. The mantle of the Charmed Ones had been passed to the triplets long ago; Piper and Paige were long since gone. She just didn't have the energy to keep going any longer. When he died, her heart went with him.

When the limo pulled up to the Manor, she opened her eyes and let out a sigh. She really just wanted this day to be over. She had never been a fan of funerals, or of memorials, and today was no different. When the door opened, Wyatt reached in to take her hand and to help her out of the car. When she was standing, he put an arm around her waist and walked with her up the stairs.

"How are you holding up, Aunt Phoebe?"

She managed a tired smile. "I'm doing as well as can be expected, Wyatt. I think that I'll be really glad when this day is over."

"I know," he nodded and squeezed her gently. "It'll only be a little while longer, Pheebs."

"Have you seen your father?" She questioned softly as they walked to her room so she could rest from all of the people and the events of the last few days.

Wyatt sighed. "Mom, Prue and Paige are pretty well pissed that they aren't allowed to come down here and be with you today. Dad has his hands full keeping them from doing something that could cause a little bit of trouble for everyone concerned."

"Piper won't allow herself to be thwarted for very long," Phoebe said with a shrug. "If she wants to be here, she will be. If the Elders don't like it, I'm sure she'll tell them where to stick it." She took a deep breath and then looked up at her nephew as she sat down. "Has he seen Cole?"

Wyatt kneeled next to her chair. "He has and he says that Cole is absolutely livid about the Elders trying to impose rules on his comings and goings."

She laughed softly. "Cole doesn't recognize the Elders as an authority figure and he never has. They won't change that." She swallowed. "Being dead won't change that."

"He'll come." It wasn't a question. Wyatt knew his uncle pretty well and he would want to be with his wife today. "Somehow, he'll come."

"I know," she said softly. "He'll be here."

Wyatt nodded and then stood up. "I'm going to go downstairs and try to get rid of some of the excess well-wishers and professional mourners."

"Wyatt, that's horrible," she said, but she was trying to choke back laughter and her eyes were twinkling at him.

He shrugged. "That's what they are. They wait at their phones or their windows for news that someone has died and they get into their character and show up at the door of the grieving family."

Phoebe nodded. "You're right. It's what they seem to live for and they prey on the ones who are suffering loss and hurting."

"Not on this family," he said firmly. He bent to kiss her cheek and then stood up again. "I'll come back up later with tea and to check on you."

Phoebe watched Wyatt leave and then sighed. She pulled herself out of the chair and walked into the bedroom. She stood before the dresser for a long time and then picked up one of the frames. Her fingers played over the glass as her eyes welled with tears again.

"Cole..." she whispered as she stared into the photo of them on their wedding day. Still holding the photo, she went to the bed and sank down onto it. She hugged the framed photograph to her and let the tears fall. 

It had been a week since he had passed, but the pain was still a burning hole in her heart. The fact that he had died of natural causes and not from anything supernatural was a small comfort to her right now. All that mattered was that he was gone and she was alone. When you had been married for twenty-five years you begin to think that your beloved will live forever --- and Cole really should have. They had prepared for the fact that she would die before he would. The life she led was predisposed to an early and unnatural death. Cole was supposed to live long after her.

She lay down, curling up as she held the photo to her chest. She wanted to scream and rail against the Elders because this wasn't fair. Cole wasn't supposed to die yet. She still needed him. She couldn't do all of this alone.

She didn't scream and rail, though. She knew that it would do no good as the Elders would turn a deaf ear to her anguish as they always had before. She also knew that such a reaction would distress the children, and she didn't want to do that.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes as she clutched the photo to her.

 

" _If the years take away  
Every memory that I have  
I would still know the way  
That would lead me back to your side  
The north star may die  
But the light that I see in your eyes  
Will burn there always  
Lit by the love we have  
Shared before time_"

Cole stood by the bed, his heart aching as he listened to her cry. He hated that he was the reason she was in so much pain. His passing had been unexpected and he hadn't done anything to prepare her for it. They had focused so much on preparing him and the children for the day that she would die, but none of them had ever expected that he would go before her.

He sat on the bed next to her and ran a hand over her head. He knew that she couldn't feel it, but when he was living, that had been his favorite way of offering comfort to her. "Sweetheart, I am so sorry. If we had only known." If they had only known... what, exactly? Would he have taken her death any better than she was taking his? It was highly doubtful.

He stretched out next to her, hoping that some part of her would be able to sense that he was there and take comfort in that. More than anything, he wanted to be able to hold her and soothe the pain she was feeling. He bowed his head to rest against hers and closed his eyes.

He had been resting like that for several moments when he came to the realization that something had changed. He lay silently, trying to figure out in his mind what had jostled his awareness.

"Cole?"

That was what had happened. He had heard someone call his name. He opened his eyes... and found himself looking into Phoebe's brown ones. "Phoebe."

She turned so that she could hold him and shook her head slowly. "You glow like Grams," she finally said softly.

"So do you." _Wait. What?!_ Cole pulled back from her and sat up, his eyes moving over her. He wasn't mistaken. Her spirit was outside of her body and she was glowing. Not only that, she looked exactly as she had the day he had met her. "Phoebe... what happened?" 

She shook her head. "I don't know. One minute I was laying here in tears and the next minute, I felt you holding me." She ran a hand through his hair. "Can you feel that?"

He could. "I don't understand," he said softly.

"It means that it's her time, Cole," an amused voice said gently.

Phoebe sat up and looked around. "Mom?"

Patty faded into view. "I'm here, sweetie.

Phoebe moved off of the bed and went to embrace her mother. "My time?"

Patty nodded. "You've done what you were supposed to do and fulfilled your destiny, Phoebe. Your Grams and I, and your sisters, are so proud of you."

Cole came to stand next to them, and reached out to take Phoebe's hand. "But the girls?"

"Have grown into lovely young women, Cole," Patty said softly. "The two of you have done very well in raising them."

"I don't want them to be left alone," Phoebe said, shaking her head.

"Oh, but they won't be alone, sweetie," Patty reassured her. "They have Wyatt and Chris...and they'll have us. Everything is as it should be." Patty looked at the two of them. "It's time."

Cole wrapped his arms around Phoebe, holding her close to him again.

 

An hour later there was a gentle knock on the door and then Wyatt poked his head into the room. "Aunt Phoebe?" Getting no answer, Wyatt entered the room and headed for the bedroom. "Aunt Phoebe?"

He approached the bed where she was laying and even from a distance, he knew she was no longer there. He smiled faintly and drew a blanket up over her. He looked around the room and cocked his head slightly.

"You had better take damn good care of her out there, Uncle Cole."

He kissed his Aunt's cheek and then headed back downstairs to tell Chris and the girls.

 

" _When the forest turns to jade  
And the stories that we've made  
Dissolve away  
One shining light will still remain_

_When we shed our earthly skin_  
And when our real life begins  
There'll be no shame  
Just the love that we have made before time"


End file.
